The organ, as a musical instrument, has been around in one form or another, since the third century BC, but it wasn’t until medieval times that the instrument began to be used by the church, being installed in cathedrals such as Winchester and Notre Dam. During the Renaissance, the instrument evolved into a masterpiece of art and sound, a fashion statement that became the desire of kings and lords, and archbishops.

In the romantic period, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the instrument became much more symphonic, able to produce very sophisticated sounds with complex harmonics and deeply resonant tones. In modern times, the development of more sophisticated pneumatic and electro-pneumatic key actions made it possible to separate the console from the pipes which opened wide the doors to organ design.

Today, however, in the age of electronic synthesizers and amplification, the pipe organ is becoming a lost art. The costs of design, installation, and maintenance are too much to bear for most organizations that would benefit from the grandeur of a pipe organ. Still, the power and majesty of the pipe organ is unique in the world of music. Perhaps the best-known piece written specifically for the Instrument of Kings is Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D-minor. Click on the link to listen to the majestic sounds of Liene Andreta Kalnciema playing the masterful E.F. Walcker & Co, 1883, pipe organ at the Riga Cathedral in Riga, Latvia.

Here is a link to a very modern, electronic version, interpreted by the Trans Siberian Orchestra. You be the judge. Which do you think better provides the power and grandeur that Bach intended?